Summary
Most video game love stories are saved for the good guys. It makes sense: true love is a great motivator for doing the right thing or protecting what’s dearest to a character’s heart. Heroes also tend to have “honesty and sincerity” down pat, which helps when forging a lasting romance.
But while heroic romances are pure and wholesome, villainous romances have a messy, passionate side, making for some interesting storytelling. BioWare games seem to understand that appeal. For every classic “Happily Ever After” they put into their games, they verify to sprinkle in some truly evil duos that give love a bad name.
Lord Bann Conobar’smarriage to Flemethwas brief, but it forever shaped her into who she is today. When his lady wife’s heart was stolen away by a poet, he initially let her leave to pursue true love. But in his jealousy, he lured the two of them back to his palace, only to murder Flemeth’s new groom and lock her away in his tower.
In vengeance, Flemeth summoned a powerful spirit that transformed her into the deadly Witch of the Wild so she could exact her revenge. Ever since the tragic end of her two marriages, Flemeth has become a dangerous enigma, making deals with powerful figures, and even threatening to possess and cast dark rituals over her daughters.
Before she becameShadowheart’sgruesome caretaker inBaldur’s Gate 3, Viconia De Vir was oncea romanceable companion herself. And, much like her future foster daughter, her two romantic routes can be best summed as “I can fix her” or “I can make her worse.”
As an evil-aligned cleric of Shar, Viconia is prone to murder and deceit, and her bad ending sees her forming (and later slaughtering) a Shar cult of her very own. This makes her a perfect partner for an evil version of Gorian’s Ward, who chooses to embrace their heritage as a child of murder. Together, these two twisted souls can paint the world in Shar’s corrupting black and Bhaal’s murderous red.
In the originalKnights of the Old Republic, romance options were rather limited. Of the three available options - Bastila, Carth, and Juhani - two of them were only receptive to dating a Light Side protagonist. Seems like slim pickings in a galaxy far, far away, right? Well, fortunately, at least one companion has an open mind, and in more ways than one!
Bastila Shan can be encouraged to embrace the Dark Side further through the player’s actions. On a Dark Side playthrough, both Bastila and Revan end the game bybecoming Sith Lordsand destroying the Galactic Republic, plunging the galaxy into darkness.
Garrus can be encouraged to embrace his Renegade side even in the firstMass Effect. Playing as either a Paragon or Renegade inMass Effect 3comes with some major consequences for how the main story plays out. Being bad has its consequences, after all. Fortunately for all the FemSheps out there, missing out onromancing Garrusisn’t one of them.
Garrus is a fan favorite for being alien husband material, and that fact doesn’t change no matter how Shep’s actionsshift his morality. Even as their Renegade girlfriend destroys colonies, betrays their friends, and dooms the entire universe, he is still her main ride-or-die as part of the Spectres.
Long ago, Sarevok Anchev was theBhaalspawn to end all Bhaalspawn— literally. He aspired to please his father, the Murder Lord, by throwing the Sword Coast into war, as well as slaughtering his half-siblings so that none could contest him. His machinations in the originalBaldur’s Gatenearly brought the entire city to ruin.
During his reign, he had many lovers, the most recent of which was his fanatical consort Cynthandria. She used her spells and ambition to support his ascension plans however she could in exchange for wealth and power. She will fight against players in the Iron Throne, hissing about her dark devotion to him. But when she’s eventually backed into a corner, she’ll plead for mercy, letting the player pass in exchange for her life. Just goes to show that evil and true love don’t really mix, do they?
